This week's Talent and HR News Weekly Roundup features generation trends. Of course millennials are covered, and there are also a few articles about the aging workforce as well as those youngins (generation Z) who have yet to enter the workforce.
1) Preparing for the “silver tsunami” from Smartblog on Leadership
"While the millennial generation continues to enter the workforce in ever growing numbers, employers are confronted with another workforce challenge from the other end of the employee spectrum: the “silver tsunami” — that wave of maturing associates either preparing to exit the workforce or making the decision to extend their careers. This development is creating challenges for employers and employees alike. Employers are faced with helping employees retire without losing valuable institutional knowledge, as well as supporting and accommodating workers who choose to remain in the workforce. Employees who chose to extend their careers may want to continue to expand their skills or find ways to share their knowledge with younger colleagues."
2) Millennials Are The Workforce: A Plea For Present-Casting from Forbes
"Our industry fixated on Generation Y with the same market-heat fervency once reserved for boomer teens: how can we engage this generation? But with 53.5 million by the beginning of this year, they take up the largest segment of the U.S. workforce, many aren’t kids anymore (the generation’s first year is 1981), and they are making major workforce decisions themselves. Some will soon be in their 40s themselves. So while some of us still wonder ponder best recruiting strategies, here’s a not so new newsflash: them is us. Actually, it’s nearly a year since that post. It’s not about just pinpointing differences in order to get a better bead on how, what, all that. It’s about collaborating to best shape the future of work."
3) Greys’ Elegy from The Economist
"The population of the developed world is ageing. Everyone knows that it is happening but no one is sure what it will mean. A new paper from Morgan Stanley, part-written by Charles Goodhart, a former member of the Bank of England’s rate-setting committee, along with Manoj Pradhan and Pratyancha Pardeshi, suggests there may be dramatic economic impacts. In particular, the paper suggests that the greying population may reverse three long-term trends: a decline in real (inflation-adjusted) interest rates, a squeeze on real wages and widening inequality. That is because those trends were driven by previous demographic shifts; first, the entry of the baby boomers into the workforce after 1970 and second, the more than doubling of the globally integrated workforce as China and eastern Europe joined the capitalist system."
4) Move Over Millennials, Here Comes Generation Z from The New York Times
"Hear the word “millennial,” and plenty of images spring to mind. There’s Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg, in his hoodie, earning his first billion by the age of 23. There’s Miley Cyrus, preening for the cameras in a flesh-baring act that recalls a Snapchat sexting session. There’s Lena Dunham, TV’s queen of overshare, spiraling into navel-gazing soliloquies that seem scripted from the therapist’s couch. They’re brash, they’re narcissistic, they’re entitled. Or so the cliché goes. But what about “Generation Z,” the generation born after millennials that is emerging as the next big thing for market researchers, cultural observers and trend forecasters? With the oldest members of this cohort barely out of high school, these tweens and teens of today are primed to become the dominant youth influencers of tomorrow. Flush with billions in spending power, they promise untold riches to marketers who can find the master key to their psyche."
Lexi Gordon is a Lead Consultant for exaqueo, a workforce consultancy that helps organizations build their cultures, employer brands and talent strategies. Contact exaqueo to learn more about our employer brand innovation, workforce research, and recruiting strategy offerings.